Queens Of The Stone Age, overjoyed at receiving a 10/10 from Mojo
The week in ADM
Andrew Nicholson on a week when Queens Of The Stone Age emerged as potential destabalisers of the entrenched order at the top of the ratings
For all the impossible-to-ignore clamour surrounding last week's
release of the Daft Punk album, there's at least
one place that Random Access Memories has made no real impression:
the top of the ADM chart.
Indeed it looks very much like the upper reaches of the chart are
going to be stable for the foreseeable future. Laura
Marling, Vampire Weekend and The National
look pretty unassailable in the top three spots, while
William Tyler's Impossible Truth has been around
for a month now and is sitting very comfortably thank you at
No.5.
The National's album received an upward-propelling 10/10 from Art
Rocker, who were definitely feeling the summer love this week. They
scattered perfect scores around to Public Service
Broadcasting and CocoRosie as well as to
the Brooklyn indie rockers.
Also in receipt of a 10/10, bestowed by Mojo, were Queens
Of The Stone Age, whose sixth album - currently on a 7.9
ADM Rating - is possibly the only release to be in with a chance of
destabilising the top 5. If it can pull a couple more ratings
around the 9-ish mark things could get interesting.
No reviews below a seven so far, the only thing dividing the
critics seems to be whether Like Clockwork marks a return to form
or a continuation of Josh Homme's perfect run. Sputnik in
particular is hostile towards 2007's Era Vulgaris, an album which Q
and Clash are also frosty about. For FasterLouder, however, QOTSA
have never missed a trick. Despite describing them as a "reliable
Volvo of a band", they're happy to award a more Ferrari-like
8/10.
Automotive metaphorical mismatches aside, the overall strength of
the reviews suggests that even for those not particularly
interested in QOTSA it would be wrong to pass over the record as
just more of the same. Billboard reckon it's the best QOTSA lineup
since 1996. In a similar vein, NME suggest that it's more of what
we know and love, but "with the crap filter whacked up to
11".
One thing not to get excited about is the impressive array of
guests that grace the record. On paper, Trent Reznor, Alex
Turner, Mark Lanegan and Sir Elton John
sounds like an intriguing bunch of collaborators, but the critics
feel that the whole album can pass without the listener realising
they're there. FasterLouder's rundown of the guests' various
contributions highlights the fact that Mark Lanegan, despite having
a voice like "a velvet curtain sex god… just sort of moans nicely
in the background".